Nuño de Guzmán

Conquistador

Male

Born1490

Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán or sometimes Nuño de Guzmán was a Spanish conquistador and colonial administrator in New Spain. He was Governor of the province of Pánuco from 1525–1533, and of Nueva Galicia from 1529–1534, President of the first Audiencia from 1528-30. He founded several cities in Northwestern Mexico, including Guadalajara.… Read More

related links

Timeline

Learn about the memorable moments in the evolution of Nuño de Guzmán.

CHILDHOOD

In 1558 he wrote his last will which was uncovered in 1973, it shows him as a poverty stricken noble struggling to save his heirs from his debts, having had even to pawn his heirlooms to pay for medicine.
… Read More

In it, he requested some of the property that was confiscated from him to be returned to his heirs, and wages still due to him for his years as Governor and President be paid and turned over to his heirs. With affection he bequeathed most of his belongings to a woman Sabina de Guzmán, who had taken care of him in his illness. He also bequeathed belongings to the Franciscan Order, in spite of the conflicts he had had with its members in New Spain. Read Less

He probably died in Valladolid in 1558 on October 16 or shortly thereafter.
… Read More

In posteriority and partly in his own time Nuño de Guzmán achieved a reputation as the worst villain of the conquistadors, in the words of his biographer Donald Chipman he has been depicted as the "personification of the Black Legend". His contemporary Bernal Díaz del Castillo, one of Cortés' loyal supporters, described him in the following terms: "... In all the provinces of New Spain there was not an other man more foul and evil than Guzmán of Pánuco". His biographer Santana describes his personality as characterized by "cruelty of the highest order, ambition without limit, a refined hypocrisy, great immorality, ingratitude without equal, and a fierce hatred for Cortés". Read Less